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Topic: Brine issues (Read 1129 times)

I made my first feta!The recipe calls for a 10% brine, 500g Salt in 1L waterI boiled the water and added 400g (was the last of my Kosher salt, all i have left is reg table salt) But I couldnt get the salt to dissolve.So I added the whole mic to a pot and boiled (didn't watch it and made a mess lol) and still had undissolved salt .Is that a proper ratio and if so is it just that I have Kosher salt and so that is why it wouldn't dissolve or am I missing something?

Well thats what I was thinking!Its from page 292 in '200 East Home Made...' By debra Amerien-Boyes ( I probably misspelled that sorry )The recipe I used for my Gruyere had a brine I think either 10 or 18% and had a much smaller measure, by volume not weight.What would be a better ratio, will the over saturated brine be an issue for the fetta? Its been about 30hrs in it now, I could pick up new salt and correct it.

1st: Soak it in low fat milk for a few hours, do the taste test. Once it (salty flavor) has reached an acceptable level then:2nd: Make new brine, with salt/water ratio by weight. If you want to make a 10% brine then you would want the end product to be 90% water, 10% salt by weight. (for instance: 900g water 100g salt)3rd: for feta brine you should match acidity with your cheese (can do this with citric acid, but careful, it doesn't take much!) or with vinegar. And you will want to add some CaCl2 (calcium chloride) to the mix so that the brine doesn't leech calcium from your cheese.

Linuxboy, sorry to clarify I meant I would buy salt and start OVER! not add more to the brine! my bad!

Bbracken Thanks! I will do that! I have a gallon of Skim that I was gonna make cheese but now I have waited to long so in the end things work out! I will give the restfor cereal! and try to save the Feta!I have no way YET to measure PH, I have a feeling Sanat (ME ) will be brining a meter for the tree or soon there abouts! So for the approx 2 leters of brine I got I did add about a teaspoon of vinegar. The recipe says PH would only matter if it was aging more then 3-4 weeks, and to measure, and add a tbls then measure and check so I felt I was playing safe?I didnt add Calcium Chloride though thanks for that! i had read it before but forgot!, Will Call my wife have her dump the brine and fix when I get home!

Welcome! My first feta I brined in 16% and it turned out a *bit* salty...but I read somewhere about soaking in milk (draws the salt out). Later I read about the pH and calcium which solved the problem of the brine turning milky due to the surface of the cheese softening. The feta was still good, I just had to rinse off the gooiness on the outside and soak in milk to reduce salt content.